204 RUGER

Im interested in changing my bulgy 5.45 into a 223, so I have been gathering all the info I can out of the forum. Has anyone done one in the 204 Ruger? Its a small round with a high cup pressure. I like the 5.45 I just don't like the fact I cant reload myself. I reload all my 223 and it makes it cheaper to enjoy shooting. Any advice would be great! Thanks

But people have turned 5.45 kits into 223/5.56.
But with the way things are now & if the rifle is in good shape and shoots well, you might want to see if you can do a trade or sell what you have for what you want. That just my two cents.

"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem" Ronald Reagan

i pretty sure the AK can handle the 204 , but hey if you going to go all oddball why not a .17 rem?

i think colis is on the mark here. i would just leave it as as --and buy/trade/build one in 5,56 --
so nice to have a ak-74 and a couple tins laying around --for that emergency that might crop up one day!

going from 5.45 to 223 will require a barrel made up . Some one was offering them for 5.45 kits ( pirate maybe do a search )

AS standard 223 ak barrel will not work with out mods as the 5.45 bolt head is longer .

i have seen enough guy suing 5,45 bolthead on 223 with no or very little mods to the extractor to say it works. I haven personaly dome ti but guys I trust say the bigger 5.45 bolt face works fine . I bought a few bolts to do just that.

even if the 204 was loaded to 70,000 psi it likey will not have more bolt thrust than a 7.62x39 .. I dont know exactly what the 204 is loaded to but it not that muchg more than a 223. they sell AR upers in 20R an they use a standard ar bolt an the AK bot is way stonger than those IMO.

the qusetion is do you want to take a working gun with a good abrrel an rebarrel it to 223 or 204 or just sell it an build a new AK exactly how you want .

FWIW I have a 204 ruger barrel of a bolt action that at some pint will go on my screw in switch barrel AK build .

I also have a 17 fire ball , 17 rem barrela na 17-223 reamer . IMO a 17 rim fire is a bad canidate for a auto laoder as the barrels foul way to quick an its hard not to shoot a auto loader more I have looked hard at teh 17 fire ball but I have lot of projects .

MY advice is go 223 lots of ammo an brass an IMO the performance of the 223 is good enough to not justify the extra expnese of the 204 if you shoot it much

I have buddies with 204 R bolt guns that I shoot P dogs with an they tell me how much flatter shooting an faster the 204 is but honestly I dont see that many more kills over the 223 in the real world . the barrel on a 223 is going to last longer also IMO